It Has Begun

By Clint Demeritt

Mar 16, 2015

As the marketing industry responds to the changing environment of the Internet, we see new values emerge from companies and consumers alike. Authenticity is quickly becoming a necessary trait among brands and companies that lack it can quickly find themselves drawing the ire of the consumers they are looking to target.

The crowdfunding case study of game developer Peter Molyneux and the recent controversy surrounding his game “Godus,” is a good indication of how a lack of authenticity can lead a brand into very bad places.

Though crowdfunding started out in the realm of nonprofits and small entrepreneurs looking to help fund their first project, bigger brands have begun to see their value.

A successful crowdfunding campaign can do a lot more than just scrounge up some startup cash. A good campaign can create buzz for the product, give loyal fans rewards and a sense of ownership and help a company judge demand. Crowdfunding sites such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo are also good microcosms for the values and practices of how brands are marketed in the digital age.

So, Kickstarter seemed like fertile ground for Molyneux to get the funds for Godus. Molyneux rose to acclaim when he developed “Populous” in the late 1989, which credited him with creating what is known as the god-game genre.

Over the next few decades, Molyneux would go on to become an influential and well-liked game developer. But he also developed a reputation for his wild promises and overselling the sophistication of his games. Though Molyneux became a charismatic figure in the game world, many of his statements would have to be walked back when his games were published.

These personality traits became a recipe for disaster when he started to crowdfund his return to the god-game genre, Godus, in December 2012. Despite the lack of a video on the crowdfunding page (which is unusual for games on Kickstarter), Molyneux was able to raise about half a million pounds (around $740,000 USD) to fund the game.

But then about 3 years later (February 2015), Molyneux said he was moving on to a new project, but the media began to notice many of those Kickstarter claims had yet to come to fruition and a huge wave of backlash began to swell. It was looking ever more unlikely that those promises would ever come true.

One of the biggest gaffs was the claim the game would be complete in seven to nine months. Promised game functions were conspicuously absent, stretch goals were being ignored and backer rewards were quietly fading into obscurity.

During the backlash, Molyneux gave several interviews talking about his regrets when it came to Kickstarting Godus before an embarrassing retreat from the spotlight.

In an interview with Tech Radar, one quote from Molyneux shows the attitude that got him in trouble:

"There's this overwhelming urge to over-promise because it's such a harsh rule: if you're one penny short of your target you don't get it. And of course in this instance, the behaviour which is incredibly destructive, which is 'Christ, we've only got ten days to go and we've got to make a hundred thousand, for f**ks sake lets just say anything.'"

Instead of backing off what might have been an unsuccessful campaign, Molyneux doubled down on his dubious promises. Though gamers had forgiven Molyneux in the past for his penchant for exaggeration, those promises evaporated along with gamers’ own money. Before, those gamers could simply choose not to buy the game when it didn’t live up to expectations, but when they became invested in the game, they became more involved. That deepened the betrayal when those promises turned out to be not true.

A lack of authenticity was not Molyneux's only problem, but it was the root cause of a lot of his woes. Molyneux was accustomed to getting away with his over-exaggerations - but in this new age of Kickstarter and the Web, relying on his old tried and untrue habits proved disastrous.

In this age of information, it is so easy to be lead astray by fiction that seems like fact. With all this information, it’s easier for the public to learn the truth. So when companies show they are being honest with consumers, they will be much more willing to spend their hard-earned money.

For ways to build that trust with consumers and create a completing, authentic voice, attend the Integrated Marketing Week session “Authenticity is King: Using Your Brand Voice as Your Differentiator.”